Patek Philippe

Baron - Mr Red
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I am in a very small minority on this forum regarding this watch......

I think I can recall just Volker having a similar opinion to me and a massive majority disagreeing with me. So, my thoughts in response to your question really do reflect just my opinion and as such have no bearing on how future opinion will develop. Further more, much of what I will say about it reflect my personal taste, which again is correct only for me. Now......

1) There are a hell of a lot of 5960s out there. Different metals with different dial variations. On Chrono24, I found 266 watches currently for sale across all the various permutations of metals/dials. I think the vast array of possible permutations actually detracts from the reference. Consider the 5070 or 5970....with the exception of a handful of special editions, these references basically had one dial variation for each metal. When you start introducing so many variations, I think it detracts from the reference. Now, there is a caveat here in that Keks's "Yellow Fox", Patekova's black dial steel and your platinum original are all very rare and the logic that Patekova applies to why the variant will be a future icon is very solid. But as a reference generally, the 5960 suffers from the multitude of choices.

2) This is just my personal taste...I don't like annual calendars per se, and annual calendar chronos even less. The annual calendar chrono does not have the purity of a straight chrono nor does it have the PP complexity of the perpetual calendar chrono. To me, it is a halfway house that doesn't hit the spot as either a chrono or a calendar. I don't have a single annual calendar in my collection because i see it this way. I have pure chronos. I have split chronos. I have perpetual calendars and perpetual calendar chronos. But no annual calendars and no annual calendar chronos. Just my personal taste on the issue. Its a complication that I don't get....

3) The chrono wheel ... to my eye it is just too big and not aesthetic to my eye. Really puts me off.


So, those would be my reasons for not being a fan of the 5960 as a reference. That doesn't mean that the reference won't be a massive star in the future. It just explains my perspective on why I am not a big fan. If i was to be told I was being given one, and asked which one I would like, then of course there would be a pecking order. The three I mentioned above would be the medal takers.